The downside of being irrelevant and aloof: Exploring why individuals do not attend sport

Understanding what influences an individual to transition from awareness that a sport team exists to attraction to that team is of critical importance in the management and development of consumer bases. Determining the factors that prevent individuals at a stage of awareness from becoming attracted is of equal importance. In this paper we use a social identity approach to explore reasons for non-attendance. Qualitative data were gathered from a mixed-method online survey administered to registered participants in a large football (soccer) association in New South Wales. The questionnaire included an open-ended question allowing individuals who had not attended a match during the previous 12 months to elaborate on the reasons that they did not attend. The seventy-five individuals who responded to this open-ended question comprise the sample for this research. Data highlighted that cognitive apathy and disidentification were both salient cognitive responses associated with individuals who did not attend. Furthermore, club values and characteristics were shown to influence team-based perceptions. The findings present implications for sport teams to overcome cognitive apathy and disidentification through organisation-initiated efforts to disseminate information and promote the team, as well as efforts to align team characteristics and values with consumer perceptions.     

Exploring Emotional Intelligence Among Master's‐Level Counseling Trainees

The authors explored the relationship between counseling trainees' emotional intelligence (EI), empathy, stress, distress, and demographics. Results indicated that higher levels of EI were associated with lower stress and distress, higher affective and cognitive empathy, and age. These findings suggest curricular integration of EI and potential utility of EI measures to evaluate students' progress throughout the program.     

Exploring the Robustness of a Unidimensional Item Response Theory Model With Empirically Multidimensional Data

Unidimensionality and local independence are two common assumptions of item response theory. The former implies that all items measure a common latent trait, while the latter implies that responses are independent, conditional on respondents’ location on the latent trait. Yet, few tests are truly unidimensional. Unmodeled dimensions may result in test items displaying dependencies, which can lead to misestimated parameters and inflated reliability estimates. In this article, we investigate the dimensionality of interim mathematics tests and evaluate the extent to which modeling minor dimensions in the data change model parameter estimates. We found evidence of minor dimensions, but parameter estimates across models were similar. Our results indicate that minor dimensions outside the primary trait have negligible consequences on parameter estimates. This finding was observed despite the ratio of multidimensional to unidimensional items being above previously recommended thresholds.     

Trait Affection Given and Received: A Test of Hofstede’s Theoretical Framework

This study sought to address Hofstede and McCrae’s (2004) call for systematic cross-cultural comparisons of trait-like attributes. Specifically, we examined the extent to which Danish, Icelandic, Polish, and American adults’ trait affection given and trait affection received are (a) dependent on national origin, and (b) associated with Hofstede’s dimensions of cultures (i.e. individualism-collectivism, masculinity-femininity, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance). The participants (N = 606) completed a questionnaire in English that consisted of the trait affection given and trait affection received scales. Results of a multivariate analysis of variance and linear regression analyses revealed that people’s trait affection given and received are (a) dependent on national origin, and (b) associated with Hofstede’s dimensions of cultures.     

Conceptualizing climate change in the context of a climate system: implications for climate and environmental education

Today there is much interest in teaching secondary students about climate change. Much of this effort has focused directly on students’ understanding of climate change. We hypothesize, however, that in order for students to understand climate change they must first understand climate as a system and how changes to this system due to both natural and human influences result in climatic and environmental changes and feedbacks. The purpose of this article is to articulate a climate system framework for teaching about climate change and to stimulate discussion about what secondary students should know and understand about a climate system. We first provide an overview of the research on secondary students’ conceptions of climate and climate change. We then present a climate system framework for teaching about climate and climate change that builds on students’ conceptions and scientific perspectives. We conclude by articulating a draft conceptual progression based on students’ conceptions and our climate system framework as a means to inform curriculum development, instructional design, and future research in climate and environmental education.     

The Salience and Utility of School Sex Education to Young Women

This article explores young women's accounts of the role that school sex education had in their learning about sex. It focuses on the influence of school sex education on behaviour, the importance of timing in understanding its utility, and the extent to which other sources of information complement or supplement school sex education. Thirty in-depth interviews and eight group discussions were conducted with female pupils from six schools in the east of Scotland. Nearly all of those interviewed cited school as a useful source in learning about sex. In particular, lessons intended to develop pupils' skills were valued. These were thought likely to influence behaviour positively in the future, although only one person could illustrate how this had already happened. A common feature of accounts was that school sex education had been delivered 'too late' for themselves or their peers, and it tended to be seen as an introduction or as supplementary to other sources, particularly friends, magazines and mothers. The utility of school sex education should not be dismissed but more attention should be given to the needs of those who become sexually active in their early teens.     

A Mixture IRTree Model for Extreme Response Style: Accounting for Response Process Uncertainty

This paper presents a mixture item response tree (IRTree) model for extreme response style. Unlike traditional applications of single IRTree models, a mixture approach provides a way of representing the mixture of respondents following different underlying response processes (between individuals), as well as the uncertainty present at the individual level (within an individual). Simulation analyses reveal the potential of the mixture approach in identifying subgroups of respondents exhibiting response behavior reflective of different underlying response processes. Application to real data from the Students Like Learning Mathematics (SLM) scale of Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015 demonstrates the superior comparative fit of the mixture representation, as well as the consequences of applying the mixture on the estimation of content and response style traits. We argue that methodology applied to investigate response styles should attend to the inherent uncertainty of response style influence due to the likely influence of both response styles and the content trait on the selection of extreme response categories.